Gujarat: Transport dept, police gear up for Sept 16 rollout of amended MV Act

Out of the 18 categories, the Gujarat government slashed the penalty amount by 50%, 70% and even 10 times lower in 15 of them, which include driving without seat belt, riding without helmet, driving without licence, lacking pollution check certificate or registration, wrong side driving, illegal parking, over-speeding and triple riding.

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The highest -penalty has been kept at Rs 5000 for the first time offence of driving a four-wheeler without a fitness test certificate, performing stunts on bikes or cars, driving heavy motor vehicles without registration or wrong side driving of heavy motor vehicles.

Residents of Gujarat have been given time till September 15 to get all necessary documents such as driving license, registration certificate, third party insurance and pollution under control (PUC) certificate.

“Our priority is to update the software of e-challan so that all new categories of offences and their penalty can be displayed on our website and people can check their fine amount,” regional transport office inspector Ankit Shah said. “We will also hold inspection drives in tandem with police once the act comes into effect.”

Recently, Ahmedabad Cyber Police busted a racket of fraudsters hacking into the software system of the RTO to illegally clear the backlog of pending driving licence applications. The hackers would later sell the ‘cleared’ licences to applicants from all major cities of Gujarat.

“We are strengthening our online infrastructure so that people don’t experience any problem while applying for licences online” Shah said.

The state government has fixed the fine for driving a vehicle without insurance at Rs 2000 for the first offence and Rs 4000 for the second offence.

This is at par with fines prescribed by the union government for these offences.

Explaining the need for vehicles to have third-party insurance, another RTO inspector RK Parmar said, “Vehicle owners can get any minimum amount of insurance policy done and it will be upto the third-party company to decide. It doesn’t matter even if the insurance has not been done for the vehicle in the past years, as we will check only current state.”

Meanwhile, Gujarat Director General of Police Shivanand Jha has written to all police zonal and commissionerate heads to ensure that traffic laws are followed diligently from September 16.

The DGP has also asked all policemen to follow the traffic laws strictly as flouting of laws by cops gives a bad name to the department.

“It is the priority of police to ensure that traffic laws are followed strictly in the city. It is also crucial that policemen do not violate any traffic laws as it fails the purpose,” Jha said. “Sudden inspection and drives must be conducted outside police/traffic stations and outposts. Any policeman found violating traffic laws must be reported to the supervising officer,” he added.

Meanwhile, a top official of Port and Transport Department informed The Indian Express that the penalty rates decided by the state government in Gujarat will not be applicable in the UTs. “The new amendments and revised penalty list by the state government will be applicable only in the state minus the UTs. The notice for UTs might be later sent by the union Home ministry,” said the official.

Superintendent of police of the Union Territory of Daman, Vikramjeet Singh, said, “We are at present acting on the old notification rules. The new notification has been drafted and once that is notified and issued we will implement accordingly.”